According to The Economic Times, Rapido is thinking about getting into the food delivery business. In order to investigate this new business opportunity, the company is currently in discussions with restaurateurs.
According to people familiar with the talks, Rapido wants to challenge the commission structure of Zomato and Swiggy, two of the biggest online food delivery services.
Rapido To Start Delivering Food: Competing With Swiggy and Zomato
Rapido, which began as a bike-taxi platform in 2015, has expanded rapidly and is currently ranked second in India’s ride-sharing market. After achieving an annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) of over $1 billion, the entry into the food delivery market is in line with its next stage of growth.
These are preliminary talks to see if Rapido can break the Zomato-Swiggy duopoly, according to a source, “These are early discussions to determine if Rapido can challenge the Zomato-Swiggy duopoly. The company already offers delivery services for individual restaurants using its two-wheeler fleet.”
Since Swiggy is an investor in the ride-sharing startup, Rapido already provides food delivery services for Swiggy. But since there was no exclusivity clause in the investment, Rapido is free to grow into food delivery on its own.
By 2025, Rapido hopes to have operations in 500 cities. This comes after Dutch company Prosus invested $30 million in February, adding to the $200 million raised by WestBridge Capital the previous year, increasing its valuation to $1.1 billion.
In November, Rapido had 2.6 million daily ride bookings; today, that number is between 3.2 and 3.5 million.
Although bike taxis continue to be Rapido’s main offering, the platform’s subscription-based business model for drivers and gig workers is causing it to see rapid growth in auto-rickshaws and four-wheeler taxis. They pay a daily or weekly fee to access the platform rather than commissions for each ride.
With aggregators and restaurateurs at odds over commission rates, the company’s food delivery debut coincides with a slowdown in the online food delivery market.
Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, blamed systemic problems in the food delivery sector for the slowdown in growth.
40,000 Distributors File Case Against Zomato, Swiggy Over Excessive Discounts
The All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF) has filed an antitrust complaint against Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, and Zepto. The filing, reviewed by Reuters, accuses these platforms of engaging in predatory pricing and deep discounting, making it impossible for traditional retailers to compete.
AICPDF represents 400,000 distributors who supply consumer goods from companies like Nestlé, Unilever, and Tata to 13 million retail shops across India. They argue that small retailers cannot match the pricing strategies of quick commerce players, leading to unfair competition.
